


Just A Glitch

by Reis_Asher



Category: Detroit: Become Human (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Deviant Upgraded Connor | RK900, M/M, Masochist Gavin Reed, Misunderstandings, No Sex, Not Really Character Death, One Shot, One-Sided Attraction, Post-Canon, Sad, Sad Ending, Unresolved Sexual Tension
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-13
Updated: 2018-11-13
Packaged: 2019-08-23 04:10:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,588
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16611689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reis_Asher/pseuds/Reis_Asher
Summary: Gavin comes to work to find his partner, Nines, is acting strangely...





	Just A Glitch

**Author's Note:**

> I really just wanted to write some smut, but instead I wrote this no smut, all-angst piece. Please be aware that it does not end happily, and if that's something you can't cope with, please don't read it!

“Here is your coffee, Detective Reed.” Nines placed the coffee cup down on the table without a hint of annoyance or veiled sarcasm. Gavin raised an eyebrow. He picked the cup up and lifted the plastic lid, sniffing carefully, but there was no hint of laxatives or rat poison—nothing besides the pleasant aroma of coffee. Nines had even put creamer in it, and a sip revealed it had just the right amount of sugar to be sweet without being saccharine.

“Okay, tincan. Now I’m suspicious. You never bring me coffee unless I tell you to.” Gavin leaned back in his office chair, listening to it creak slightly. He put his feet up on the desk and left gave Nines an appraising look. For all intents and purposes, he looked the same as he always did, but something was off about him today.

“I thought I would endeavor to be more helpful,” Nines said. “If I’m to be your partner, we need to develop a healthy working relationship.”

Gavin narrowed his gaze. “Okay, you can quit being creepy, now. Is this about the complaint I filed last week?” He regretted it now, but after a particularly nasty fight, he’d filed a request for a new partner. He’d told Fowler to throw it in the trash can the next day, when he’d simmered down, but he’d never told Nines.

Truth was, he loved it when they fought. He felt alive when Nines shoved him up against the wall and threatened him. He had to still his pounding heart when Nines told him how worthless he was. He wanted nothing more than for Nines to shove him down to the floor and make him lick his boots.

A Nines that brought him coffee like a friend left him cold inside, and he hoped Nines would give up this attempt to be buddies sooner rather than later. Maybe with a little goading, Nines would have him breathless up against the wall of his cubicle by lunchtime.

“You’re an insufferable suckup,” Gavin chided, “but I ain’t buying it.” He took the lid off the coffee cup and poured it out into the trash can beside his desk. There was a flash of something in Nines’ eyes, almost like he was hurt. Apparently Nines was in the wrong career, because he’d missed his calling as an actor if this performance was anything to go by. Gavin tossed the cup and lid into the can, kicking it back under his desk.

Nines stood back, looking at him, and Gavin knew where he’d seen that gaze before. Nines was acting just like Connor. Connor the fucking pushover. Connor who was was fun to bully for about five minutes. Until he’d latched onto Hank as his lover, partner, and protector, forcing Gavin to back off or face the wrath of a newly sober Hank Anderson.

Gavin wanted Nines' blue eyes to flash with annoyance. He wanted Nines to get in his face and threaten to hurt him, the vibrations of his low voice tickling the shell of his ear and sending shivers down his spine.

This sweet bullshit left him in a grumpy mood with a flaccid dick. "We got a case," Gavin grumbled. "Move your plastic ass already. I wanna get there before Ben tramples the whole fuckin' scene."

"As you wish, Detective Reed." Nines strolled out of the bullpen, and was his stupid android speaker playing the sound of whistling on the way out?

The fuck was wrong with this thing? A short-circuit? What the fuck did anyone do when a deviant android started acting strangely? Gavin was pretty sure deviancy voided the warranty, so he couldn't exactly haul his partner over to CyberLife for repairs.

***

"Would you shut the fuck up already?" Gavin snapped. He'd made a mistake in letting Nines choose the music for the ride, because of course the android could imitate any voice, lending himself to a perfect rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody on the way to the crime scene.

"Would you like me to sing something else, Detective?" Nines asked.

"No. I don't want you to sing, period." Gavin pulled over in front of the abandoned lot where a body had been found in a rusty car. A wintery mix of sleet and rain pounded the windshield and Gavin dreaded having to piece together what was left of the crime scene in this weather. "I just… Never mind." He got out of the car, striding over to where Ben was standing under an umbrella, looking at his tablet computer.

"Not much to see, Gavin, I'm afraid," Ben said. He turned his head to look at Nines. "What's going on with him? He seems different."

"You think?" Gavin shrugged. "Who knows, I can never figure out these fuckin' androids." He swung open the rusty gate to the abandoned lot and saw Nines was already analyzing the body that lay slumped forward in the back of a decrepit old car. Two obvious bullet holes pierced the man's chest, and the bloodstains were dry, giving the faded band t-shirt he was wearing more color than it had seen in years. The seat was peppered with holes, dirty yellow foam protruding from them like spoiled cheese.

"Do you really gotta analyze this, Nines? There are"—he counted them—"ten bullet holes in the windshield. It was a drive-by shooting. Judging from the looks of him, he was some homeless guy trying to shelter in this car and he got caught in the crossfire. I don't need your preconstruction bullshit on this one."

Nines stood up. "I believe you are correct, Detective. I am sorry I was unable to be of use." Nines hung his head and Gavin felt the tight rubber band he kept around his feelings stretch taut and snap. He grabbed Nines by the jacket and shoved him backwards.

"What the fuck are you doing, Nines? Fucking insult me already, you plastic prick!" He strode forward, shoving Nines hard against the wall. "I've been treatin' you like shit all day and you're just gonna stand there and take it? What happened to the android that just last week shoved my gun in my mouth, huh?"

"You filed a complaint about that incident," Nines reminded him. "Captain Fowler suggested that I adopt a less antagonistic approach in order to build trust with my partner. I reinstalled my social relations program, but you seem to be more hostile than before. Have I done something wrong?"

"You did… you did _what_?" Gavin withdrew the hand pinning Nines to the wall. "Why?"

"On reflection, it did seem excessive to threaten your life over a minor misunderstanding. Upon running a diagnostic, I discovered a glitch in my program, possibly caused by my lapse into deviancy. It has been corrected and I assure you I will never threaten you with a firearm again."

"Well, fuckin' uninstall it!" Gavin yelled. "Put the glitch back!" His hair was sticking to his forehead with the cold rain, but that minor discomfort was nothing compared to the pain coursing through his gut. He'd been shot and stabbed in the line of duty and it hadn't hurt like this.

Nines blinked, his eyes filled with confusion. "I cannot 'put the glitch back', Detective. It was a spontaneous mutation in my code. I do not understand the cause of your distress. Am I not a better partner, now?"

"You're not the same person!" Gavin had never referred to an android as a person before and it felt alien on his tongue. Yet he liked it. He wished he'd used it more, but he'd loved to push Nines into acts of aggression. He seemed so alive when he lost his cool. "I miss the old Nines! The Nines that didn't take my shit!"

"You filed a complaint about my behavior. You requested a transfer," Nines pointed out.

"I retracted the request the next day!" Gavin turned away and kicked a stone, not caring that he was wrecking a crime scene. The rain had already ruined it enough that the CSI folks would have little to go on when they picked over the lot. "I didn't want to admit that I fucking liked it when you stuffed that gun in my mouth. Didn't your precious little scanners tell you I was hard as a rock? I wanted you to push me down to the ground and fuck me."

"You are… attracted to me?" Nines cocked his head slightly. Gavin scanned his face for some hint of bemusement, mockery—something to confirm the Nines of his wet dreams was still in there, but all he saw in Nines' expression was confusion.

"I was, but that Nines is dead, isn't he? Reinstalled. Overwritten. Gone. Now I've got Connor's clone as a partner, because I fucked up." Gavin shook his head. "Never mind. I'll be filing a request for a new partner when I get back to the station. It's probably best for both of us." Gavin walked away as Ben and Chris entered the lot with a group of crime scene investigators. He took one last glance back at Nines, the android's expression contorted into a look of shock and despair, his blue eyes twinkling with tears. Tears. Like his Nines would ever cry at something he said. It only twisted the knife and Gavin walked faster, eager to put as much distance between him and Nines—no, not Nines, not any more—this RK900 model as possible.

Fucking androids. Gavin was never getting involved with them again.


End file.
